Miniopterus villiersi, Aellen, 1956
publication ID |
https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.5735202 |
DOI |
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5735316 |
persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/E84887F9-FFDA-D654-0A24-FEEB11C43109 |
treatment provided by |
Plazi |
scientific name |
Miniopterus villiersi |
status |
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18. View Plate 53: Miniopteridae
Villiers’s Long-fingered Bat
Miniopterus villiersi View in CoL
French: Minioptere de Villiers / German: Villiers-Langflligelfledermaus / Spanish: Miniéptero de Villiers
Other common names: Villiers's Bent-winged Bat
Taxonomy. Miniopterus inflatus villiersi Aellen, 1956 View in CoL ,
“grotte du Marché, Dalaba, Guiné francaise [= Guinea].”
Initially described as subspecies of M. inflatus . Later, two species were found in Upper Guinea; M. villiersi was the smallest and was moved to the schreibersii complex.
Recent genetic evidence supports its species rank. Monotypic.
Distribution. Restricted to Upper Guinea forest zone, in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. View Figure
Descriptive notes. Tail 48-56 mm, hindfoot 8:5-10 mm, forearm 42-44-5 mm. Villiers’s Long-fingered Bat is similar similar but smaller than the Greater Long-fingered Bat ( M. inflatus ) from Cameroon. Pelage is uniformly blackish brown. Wing and tail membranes and ears are grayish brown. Ears are small, with distal part of tragus unpigmented and whitish in eight specimens used for the species description, although this characteristic is not mentioned anymore in the literature.
Habitat. Closed lowland rainforests, forest edges, and tree savannas and also hilltop dry forests and submontane grasslands at elevations of 200-1350 m (mostly 460-900 m). Most roosts of Villiers’s Long-fingered Bats are found on slopes and ridges of submontane forests, and they fly along creeks to forage at lower elevations.
Food and Feeding. There is no specific information available for this species, but other long-fingered bats mainly eat soft insects captured in flight.
Breeding. Two female Villiers’s Long-fingered Bats caught in mid-March carried single embryos with 12 mm and 14 mm crown-rump lengths.
Activity patterns. Villiers’s Long-fingered Bat is thought to be nocturnal. It roosts in caves, old mines, tunnels, and probably rock crevices during the day.
Movements, Home range and Social organization. No information.
Status and Conservation. Not assessed on The IUCN Red List. Villiers’s Long-fingered Bat was separated from Schreibers’s Long-fingered Bat ( M. schreibersii ), which is classified as Near Threatened.
Bibliography. Aellen (1956), Decher, Hoffmann et al. (2016), Decher, Norris & Fahr (2010), Eger (2013b), Fahr et al. (2006), Koopman et al. (1995), Monadjem, Richards & Denys (2016), Reardon & Schoeman (2017), Schaer et al. (2013).
No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.
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Miniopterus villiersi
Don E. Wilson & Russell A. Mittermeier 2019 |
Miniopterus inflatus villiersi
Aellen 1956 |